Chapter 2: Sucy Manbavaran

Once classed had wrapped up the following day, me and Sucy headed out towards the forested area around Luna Nova. Apparently, with the resurgence of magic, potion ingredients have become easier and easier to find, and Lukic had Sucy scout nearby areas in case rare ingredients could be found nearby. It took a little beg- convincing, but I managed to join her on her little excursion.

She and I were walking side by side, the pale girl next to me looking at the scroll in her hand with a bunch of foreign sounding words written on it with neat penmanship. As she had her eyes on what was pretty much her grocery list, I had my eyes on the hand that wasn't holding the list – the one that was dangling off on the side next to me. If I just moved an inch towards her, my hand would graze hers.

Should I do it? This was supposed to be a date, after all, and hand-holding was a typical date thing. Right?

I shot a look at the witch in order to gauge her expression. All her focus was on the list, her gaze only leaving it when she inspected her surroundings for the magical ingredients. Not once did her eyes dart towards our hands. I pouted. I supposed that I had to take the lead if I wanted to get my own Lukic-issued project underway.

I slid my right hand over to her left, entwining my fingers with hers. The first thought that hit me was that her hands were soft. She didn't use lotion, from what I could tell, so the feel of her hand in mine had no right to send shivers up my arm like it did. It was cold too, like I was holding hands with the yeti I met in Scotland. I squeezed gently, hoping to send some of my body heat her way without damaging the un-calloused hand in mine.

I felt her squeeze back. I looked up, only to be met with a toothy grin, the one that made it hard to read what she was really thinking. "Found something interesting, ey, Akko?"

"You know I'm trying to make Bessel's," I shot back as I pulled our joined hands into easy view. "This will take me one step closer."

All she did was laugh in reply. I huffed, feeling a little miffed. Sure, she didn't have to pretend to be all lovey-dovey for me when she didn't feel that way, but give me something to work with, y'know!

Before I could continue my tirade, a creature stepped onto the dirt path we were taking maybe fifty meters ahead of us. It looked like a normal wild boar I'd be able to find in Hakone except its tusks were the size of my forearm. The tips of its tusks glowed green, like it had dipped them in ectoplasm or something this morning. The beast snorted, its beady eyes getting narrower and narrower. It totally wanted to charge us.

I looked at Sucy. Her toothy grin had grown wider.

"Wilkish boar. Its tusks can be used to create a potent poison that causes your pinky fingers to become extremely swollen and feel extremely painful."

"Just my pinkies?"

"And it's on the list," Sucy ignored, "so we'll need to grab it."

I kinda felt bad that we were going to de-tusk the beast. "What's the plan? We aren't gonna hurt it, are we?"

"No. Plan A: put it to sleep." I watched as she pocketed her grocery list and pulled out an Erlenmeyer flask in is place, the flask filled to the halfway mark with a weird, pink liquid. She lobbed it into the air. Before it could hit its mark, the boar lunged out of the way, the potion causing a thin pink mist to appear behind the boar. It turned away from looking at the mist to look at us. It grazed its hooves against the dirt underneath it, like a bull staring down a matador.

My grip on Sucy's hand tightened. "What's Plan B?"

"Run."

I pulled Sucy to the side just as the boar started its charge. It looked manic as its black eyes turned red and its snout started spewing out steam. The Sucy I had meet at the bridge a long time ago would have tripped me and left me to fend the boar off by myself, so a part of me felt touched that she didn't just ditch me.

The other part didn't want baguette-sized pinkies.

"This isn't a very good plan!" I said, running past trees and hopping over roots as I tried my hand at navigating through the forest. I spared a glance back, Sucy's face set in stone as she tried to blast the boar with something. Speaking about the boar, it was fast - it weaved around Sucy's spells with ease. Luckily for us, the boar seemed to find the uneven terrain difficult to run on, slowing it down enough to keep us ahead of it.

"I guess I wanted to try something more your speed today," Sucy said. I could feel the grip in my hand start to slip. Neither of us were prepared for long-distance running, so we were burning our stamina at both ends. While we were still out of the beast's reach at that moment, it was only a matter of time until it caught up to us.

I had to do something. I pulled out my wand, aimed at the thing chasing us down, and said, "Let me have a go. Metamorphie-"

I grunted as Sucy squeezed my hand hard. "Don't transform it, you dolt – we still need its tusk!"

"Right, right," I said, putting away my wand. While my magic was getting better, the only spell I could cast on the fly with a hundred percent success rate was metamorphie faciesse, so unless I wanted to risk hurting anyone, I was better off not using magic. "What are we gonna do?"

Wordlessly, Sucy swished her wand towards a nearby tree. A green beam shot out of it, colliding with the bark. Splinters and chunks of wood flew into the air as a half-meter long gap of the tree suddenly became missing. The upper half of the tree fell over, falling right in front of the boar's path. I heard a loud thunk, as if someone had thrown a huge dart at the fallen tree. I stopped and couldn't help noticing that Sucy still had my hand in her grasp.

"Hey, the tree could've crushed it!" I said, leading Sucy over to the fallen tree. At said tree, the boar had its tusks stuck halfway in the wood. It shook its head, angrily huffing as it tried to wrestle itself from its wooden doom, but it was no use. Sucy pulled out a phial of the same liquid from earlier and poured it onto the top of the boar's head. In a snap, the boar lost consciousness.

"Like I said," Sucy said, letting go of my hand to pull out a jar twice the size of my tub of peanut butter back in the dorm. Where she hid that in her small messenger bag I had no clue, though I bet Diana would have an answer. I resolved to ask the blonde that exact question as the Filipino tapped her wand against the left tusk of the sleeping boar, bisecting it. "I wanted to do Akko things today."

I ignored the scathing jab.

"Looks kinda sad without his tusks." Sure, it tried to inflame my pinkies, but I still couldn't help but feel kinda bad about the guy.

"Wilkish boars grown their tusks back in two months."

"Oh. Then I don't feel that bad."

Sucy tossed the two tusks into the jar and placed it back into her bag. Then, turning to me, she held out a hand. My gaze went from her hand to her face. Her toothy grin wasn't there. All I saw was serenity in her slightly pursed lips.

I took her hand.

Looking at how we were joined, I said, "Hey, what is love to you, Sucy?"

I saw her raise an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well," I said, scratching the back of my head with my free hand, "I am trying to figure out what it is so that I can be in that 'heightened infatuation' state. It'd be nice to hear what that state is from my date."

Sucy looked away. "You're asking a girl who's been a loner for her whole life. I know nothing. Besides, you've been in my mind – you tell me what you saw."

I shivered uncontrollably for a split second. Remembering my misadventure in the mushroom-lover's mind always felt surreal, like it never actually happened. Like it shouldn't have happened. Being in her world and interacting with her personalities made it feel like I've been made privy to a secret that wasn't mine to know.

Still, I did know. The most distinct memory that Sucy held, the one closest to her heart, was the one I made with her at the bridge leading up to the leyline. That's why the only time the dream drive-in movie had serious animation was when she and I first met. She cherished that memory just as much as I did.

I must have been wordless for a while because Sucy started to drag me away from the sleeping boar. She stopped in front of a large tree, and after sparing me another glance, maneuvered me into it with my back pressed against the bark. I looked at her, her toothy grin still absent. Her gaze was intense, and while I felt the urge to look away, I couldn't. She approached me, her hand on my chin and her knee between my legs. I felt afraid. No, I didn't fear for my safety. Maybe anxious was a better word. Anxious for what was about to happen, what could happen.

"Love. Would you like me to show you what it means to me?" Sucy asked, her face so close to mine I could feel her breath.

Before I could answer, the Filipino closed the distance and kissed me. Since she was a bit taller than me, I had to angle my mouth up slightly to meet hers, though it wasn't uncomfortable. Far from uncomfortable, actually. It felt great. Amazing. I could feel my mind short circuit at how soft Sucy felt, at how sweet her lips felt pressed against mine. I had to lean my entire weight against the tree to my back 'cause my knees were shaking. So this was what a first kiss felt like. Electrifying. Magical.

Eventually, we parted. I was out of breath, my heart still hammering my ribcage, so I couldn't say anything as Sucy swiped a few locks of hair from my head. She pulled out an empty phial, slid the hairs into it, and corked it.

"Who's next on the list?" Sucy asked, slipping the phial into my pocket.

It took me a moment to understand what she was asking. Wordlessly, I pulled out the scrap of paper in my pocket. Beside the katakana were the names written in English.

Sucy

Lotte

Chariot

Barbara

Jazminka

Constanze

Hannah

Diana

Andrew

Amanda

"Hmph. See you later, Akko."

She slid the slip into my open hand, patted my cheek, and walked off without me.

"What happened to you, Akko?"

There I stood at the entrance to the dorms, probably looking like I had lost a fight with the forest with Diana in front of me. She looked concerned, her lips pressed in a small frown. She reached for something in my hair and pulled out a twig. She frowned.

"Um, I was out gathering materials with Sucy for her Magic Pharmaceutics assignment," I said. Her eyes seemed to narrow. She always managed to see through my lies, though what I was doing wasn't lying – I just wasn't telling her the whole truth. Still, staring into those sharp blue orbs made me feel unsettled.

"Mhm. And I suppose you had a little trouble 'finding materials' with her," she said, pulling out her wand, "with how unkempt you look."

"We had to avoid a woke-ish boar," I said.

"Wilkish boar," she corrected, tapping her wand gently against my noggin. I felt a gust of wind pass through my head, dust and debris falling from my person. "And I didn't know they were native to the UK."

I wasn't sure why she sounded so suspicious, especially since she knew how much of a trouble-magnet I was. "Sucy mentioned about the return of magic bringing back more and more magical creatures or something."

"Correct," Diana acceded, flicking a wand to get rid of the mess on the floor. "Still, I'd prefer if you were to not put yourself in harm's way like that."

"I'll try, but I was glad to help her out, y'know," I said. In the back of my head, I thought about the list. If I were to follow that to the T – lest the dice deities curse me with horrible luck – then I'd have a date with Diana in a week. She was definitely the type to want to prepare for that kind of stuff, so maybe it'd be best to ask her out early.

Luckily, I was romantically exhausted, otherwise I'd probably have to conceal a blush or choke back embarrassment. "Hey, Diana. Are you free next week?"

"Hm, it depends," Diana said, putting a hand to her chin. "Study and weekly patrols take up a lot of my time, as you already know. Why?"

"Go out on a date with me."

Hi. I'm glad that a few of you enjoyed the last chapter. I'm trying to go for a fluff fic that has a little bit of every Akko ship in it, so I'll be dedicating a chapter for each person on the list. At around 2k words per chapter, that'll put the story at around 14k, including the prologue and the epilogue.

I hope you look forward to it.